Karl

They made a big song and dance out of not paying that bill last year, then, quietly, under the radar they paid it anyway. No one said a thing.

A subject of much debate. The reason is that we receive EU funding back to projects and industries. A lot of people baulk at this action, because this money comes back wrapped in a starry flag. They don't realise that this is the way all taxation works, it's just with Europe we do see it as explicit, labelled bundles from a non elected bureaucracy. It's a pity we didn't have a referendum which offered to lock us into Europe and dissolve the UK government completely. That's essentially what we are doing now, but our Government machinery insists on being the middle man and claiming wages for doing so.

I'm an ex meditator so I woukd ask a few questions: What is the premise behind whatever meditation is being embarked upon ? It's here that there can be a split between simply meditating for some piece of mind/focus and doing so for a specific reason. Some of these reason are the deconstruction of identity. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that those prone to self flagellation might find oblivion of self an attractive proposition. It's not unlike and self abuse/addiction and can be a pathway to some pretty Nihlist thought. All depends on the user doesn't it ? Many people enjoy alcohol, but for a few this is oblivion and not enjoyment. It is a place to run from and not too. So, perhaps, though not the direct cause of the psychosis it can be the lever for it. Much like alcohol isn't the destroyer of the liver, it is the person lifting the bottle to the mouth. So, cause and effect. The problem for any bar tender/meditation tutor is knowing their own purpose in teaching meditation so that they can identify those who are at risk if possible and ensure that their own purpose is not to become the facilitator for the abuser by trying to become their saviour.

I won't disagree with that, I just think that practically it would be a none starter. The same thing must have occurred when we signed up to Europe, so I expect it will be the same if we cut the ties.

No it wouldn't have to. Scotland is a sovereign state in its own right. The act of union was voluntary. The story of that union is very interesting. It was a group of Scottish noblemen who got themselves into debt and England rescued them from penury. It's possible that the creditors might have taken Scotland as payment had England not stepped in. So, in essence it was a union of convenience in which Scotland retained its sovereignty. The campaign to leave Britain was a wholly Scottish affair but the underlying fiscal/monetary structure means that it isn't so simple. This was one reason why Alex Salmond refused to answer the currency question. It wasn't about 'using the pound' but how the central bank, treasury and taxation system functions. It's like wiring and plumbing two houses together with one drain, one boiler, one cold water main and one distribution box. Scotland woukd have needed to split all those functions and it woukd have been completely without services until it established its own functioning tax/lending economy. So, the threat by Scotland to hold another referendum or stay in the EU is quite meaningless. It's just another ploy to get England to give the Scottish Parliament more powers and a bigger share of the overall tax take of the U.K.

I would say that it isn't the banks per se, but the banks owners that are British. It's not just the banks, it's a litany of an elite that rarely reveals itself to scrutiny. Mandleson, Blair, Ken Clarke, Hesselitine, Chris Patten, Malcolm Rifkind, Cameron and Osborne are the most prominent public figures. However behind them are the market manipulators of Martin Sorrell and Roland Rudd through WPP, the World Economic Forum (Davos)-which is the mirror of the US Bildenberg Group. Behind these people sit the real players and it's easier just to make a list of those who attended Davos this year. It's a big wealthy club in which the players constantly jockey for position. The British elite are still very imperialistic and see the US wealthy as the farming cousins and the Europeans as the poor cousins. I think that some believe in an instant British reformation, but this isn't really the view of the serious outers who correctly identify the issues and know what is required. They are regarded as little Englanders, ironically that's what the remain group are. They still think in terms of British European supremacy. There is no 'special relationship' between the US and Britain. We threw that away in the First World War when we regarded the US as our country cousins who were obligated to defend the British Elite. When it was all over, we welched on our payments and failed to show proper respect. The result was, that after WW2 the US didn't make the same errors and milked us dry of every asset we had. We were then just a lapdog with a bit of a superior attitude. The special relationship is actually with Germany, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Voting to stay won't stop the rot in the long run. That day of reckoning is coming, it's just the date which is in doubt. Could be tomorrow or 25 years from now. I don't blame you for voting in if you have seriously understood the situation and know that it's really a slave/master relationship (if a somewhat benign version). Eventually, like Rome it will all crash to the ground and we will have to take our chances then-at which point we will be in far more shock than we are today. At my age it's likely I will miss the great fall, but certainly any children you might have will go through it. I don't think it will be a very nice time to live through. Somewhat like the dark ages.

Thats what you get when you deny existence, identity, reason and logic. You end up with a bunch of dysfunctional kids making up their own laws and adults who are the product of the same system. Any wonder kids are running around schools firing at their class mates ? It's Lord of the Flies.

People keep saying 'Britain to leave the EU' but they don't get it. There is no longer a country called Britain anymore than there is a Kingdom of Mercia. We are talking, not so much of leaving as restoring a Kingdom. The machinery for that has long ago rusted and decayed. I'm not even sure we know what it looks like, where it is, or how it's supposed to function. It's not so much that the EU won't let us go, it's that we might have lost the mechanism to release us. We have been docked for so long it's hard to know where the pier stats and the ship ends. We won't really know which bits are vital until we begin to try and tear ourselves away.

By proxy as now. They don't need to take up arms these days. The new method is false flag terrorism in its many guises, or internal bickering. Set one side against another in a typical Hegelian dialectic and then suggest the synthesis. People always fall for the false middle-the compromise. They don't want full socialism, nor full capitalism so they settle for a 'mixed' economy which satisfies the ruling elite as they can make the people pay for their socialistic streak and make lots of money by their insistence of state regulation-which prevents cronies having competition or risk. So, they can do the same by creating full fear of devolution against fear of consolidation. Everyone plumps for a negotiated compromise-exactly what Cameron has effected. "Look" he will say" there's more to be done, it isn't perfect, but now I have a deal which is a good deal for Britain and allows us to have more control over the European direction". It's all rubbish, but it will keep the people happy, his party happy and the ruling elite happy. It's the elite who wish to remain part of the EU. There was a little Freudian slip by a Tory MP Justine Greening when she said "you are getting an opportunity to vote" and hurriedly changed the 'you' to a 'we'. Caught that one Justine I'm afraid. You, the proles, are being allowed to vote, you had better vote the way we tell you.

I would say that we will remain in Europe. However, the referendum isn't the end. Cameron never expected to actually honour his promise because the election polls predicted labour would win. The point of the referendum promise was to placate his back benchers and stop the rise of UKIP. A referendum is always a bad idea because it creates in the minds of the public an ongoing potential to decide on political issues through the polling booth. It's no longer easy for a Government to leave an issue as settled once the die is cast. So, far from the referendum ending the argument as many woukd prefer, it instead leaves open the door for ever in both directions regardless of result. The Scottish referendum is a prime example. Eventually the SNP will get its way, or England will vote away Scotland. It's like a marriage where one partner threatens to leave if things don't change permanently. From then on its just a matter of time. As it is the EU is pulling itself apart. The four countries-Poland, Hungary, Estonia and Czechoslovakia are beginning to look towards Russia once again. The immigrant crisis looks like it has done for Merkel. Greece is debauched. Italy and Spain are looking shaky financially and there are splits appearing within their own borders. France has seen the rise of Marie Le Pens party after the mess Hollandes socialist Government has made. Even Germans are considering their own position in Europe. With a failing economy, stagnation, debt and the state of the Eastern/Southern members plus the shaky Deutche Bank it looks increasingly likely that it will fall apart in its present iteration. What the EU will look like in 25 years is anyone's guess, but it won't look like it does today. Voting out would be a kindness really. Europe could then reform itself properly and Britain could stop belly aching and put its cock on the block. Everyone would benefit in the long run. Greece could have done that. It should have cut and run, sold off assets to build a financial base, cut taxes for corporations and trimmed its structurally flawed fiscal position. It could have built its own stock exchange and run on Gold backed currency. It would have been hard in the short term, but nothing like the consistently declining mess and misery the population will endure for decades.

I've written about this quite extensively on various forums. The first thing to realise is that Britain no longer has sovereignty, we lost that in 1975. The EU is a German project backed by the USA and Britain wasn't originally a member. It wasn't really needed anyway. The reason we joined was our failing economy. We were the sick man of Europe. The point of the Union is to turn it into a federal superstate in which each country has a pseudo sovereign feel, but is actually run from Brussels by German command. Both the leavers (of which I'm one) and the remainers are selling a story of fear without the facts. It's information that the leavers have been forced to do this by the remainers campaign-project fear. Leaving Europe isn't going to be all milk and honey. That needs admitting up front, but not for the reasons the remain campaign wants us to believe. It won't hurt jobs, it won't make us less secure, it won't mean we are more vulnerable, it won't mean we will be prevented from trading. The reason it will hurt is that we are living in a global financial economy. It's uncertain how long this can last on current form, but, whilst it does we can be sure that our welfare system will remain relatively intact. The money goes around in a big loop and each country takes its share of the pain. You can see how this works with interest rates and QE. No state really varies much in its rhetoric that low interest, 2% inflation, QE and austerity are all the way to go. Germany is the most powerful country economically in Europe. Britiain is dependent of financialisation. These areas of business are irrevocably economically linked-and Germany wants to get her hands on Britains financial sector. To control it totally. What's really happening in these negotiations is that Cameron is trying to engineer the retention of our financial sector from being swallowed by Europe. So, if we leave Europe we can guarantee two things. One is that our banking system woukd come under immense pressure from Germany. Every attempt would be made to smash it and take control. Secondly, we would quickly struggle to maintain the welfare sector. The Government wouldn't run out of money, but it would end up in a similar position to Greece in microcosm. The last part of the puzzle is that we would need to manage our own free trade agreements and defence. This would probably be more expensive than it currently is. Our Government relies on the EU to do all the negotiating on its behalf and that negotiating requires a lot of 'sweeteners'. Our current defence capability is woefully inadequate and would need considerable spending to beef it up. So, that sounds all bad eh ;-) These are the realities and we should know them before putting our x's in the box to leave. Now, the opportunities are potentially massive, but it's like any business, you have to have the right entrepreneurs with a stomach for enterprise. The banks have to begin accepting risk and not simply being spoon fed by the state and its fiscal/monetary policy. Britain will have to go back to work. We have decades of industrial decay, bad education, easy living and sloth. We will be faced with a vey rapid and harsh commando assault course where we had better get our shit together. The reward for getting it together is immense. It's the same as when we left Europe the first time after we broke from the RC church. We made rapid progress and ruled an enormous empire by trade and attrition. We could do so again. It isn't impossible, but it will be hard. Now, I say, if you are my age, or close to retirement and want an easy life, then you shouldn't really vote to leave. At least in the short term whilst the global economy persists this is the better option. However, if you are young, a go getter, you want a challenge and an opportunity then, vote to leave. This is funny really, because, the opposite is happening. It's the older people voting to leave and the youngsters wanting to stay. So, I'm voting out. I will accept that it will probably be painful for me at my age, but that it will ultimately lead to vast improvements globally. This is exactly what happened when we left last time. We changed the world and it does noted changing or we are going to be in trouble as a race.

That's the 'explore your feelings' 'feelings are what you should use to determine what is right'. The victim culture is part of Fabian structured social manipulation which also plays into the hands of wealthy groups who don't want their lives put under a microscope, or Governments that can then be seen to provide 'solutions' to problems that don't exist, but are useful to push.

This is the over riding philosophy of today. It has been the goal of educators to ensure reality is malleable-a process of turning education into a laboratory for rats. They are being trained to be little altruists, to rely on feelings and to perform multiple testing to ensure the programme sticks. They are taught to take their place in a hierarchical society which no longer has explicit caste/class system, but is a multi compartmentalised without obvious dividing lines. It is further concealed by an emphasis on the ideological differences in sex, race, colour, religion, sexuality. They are being prised from their history and taught that the Government will provide the future.

Pragmatism my dear Brian, Pragmatism. It doesn't matter what happened in the past, or that we plan for the future. It's only necessary to consider this moment, to live in the now. Tear up the past it tells us nothing about the future. Don't worry about the future we can make it however we wish. John Dewey: let's start out wherever we are and try something new. Hegel: let society create what it wants. It may have been true yesterday, but not today. "Act first, think later"

It's only for those who don't see well at distance. I know a few who have had it done successfully. Getting old is a bore I don't recommend it if you get the choice, opt to stay on the bus that bit longer.

I would be more impressed if I could have my eyesight fixed so I could do without glasses for reading. ...and I'm a lot grumpy...

Putin specifically stated right from the start of Russia's campaign that he was intent on restoring the government under Assad. He also made it clear that he had no love for Assad, but regarded restoration of stability as key. He is dropping bombs on anti Assad forces whatever their allegiance and Aleppo is practically abandoned to all but terrorists who are using the remaining residents as human shields. Prior to Putin and pro Assad forces, Aleppo had been surrounded and pummelled by rebels who have killed many women and children without one word mentioned in the Western press. I'm no admirer of Putin or Assad, but the Western press are certainly propagandising the conflict. Had this been Libya/ Iraq- knowing what we know today, do we really think getting rid of a Western puppet dictator has really improved things. We are awash with immigrants and refugees, all three countries are in a mess and the killing goes on. It's important to make a point, that ISIL are pretty much indistinguishable from Al Nusra, Kurds, AQ and several other splinter groups. What's more, ISIL is headquarters in an entirely different city that is not bein bombed by the Western coalition despite its protestations against Russia. One might conclude that the West was actually supporting ISIL.

More crap. The usual broken window fallacy. That the state funds research in one direction means that it crowds out other inventions. We would have had radar and computers without WW2 and been far more advanced had we not been destroying scarce resources at the time. You only need to read the stories about the first aeroplanes. The US government paid a company to produce a practical aircraft. It spent the equivalent of millions today only to be beaten by what was basically a couple of guys in a shed with less than 7% of the cash that Langley had been awarded. The Wright brothers were privately financed as well.

'Grand project' :-/ says it all really. This is about economics. The same malinvestment prevalent in our current economic system is transferred to science. Science should not be treated as some kind of a religious sect which must be continually fed money to do great works, it has to live in the real world. I write books, but I don't expect the world to pay me to write them just because I might one day produce a great and significant work. Science has to pay its way in the real world.

Observation not ire. :-) I wouldn't argue that too much is spent on defence projects, but it does have a purpose. I'm sure that if countries found themselves at the mercy of other states they wouldn't question defence spending. People hate guns until a gun is defending them. I'm not sure cutting edge science does have any spin offs. The spin off appears to be more taxed public spending on ever more bizarre projects. I would rather we spent all that cash on sorting Alzheimer's than discovering gravity waves.

It's not difficult to escape Karma. It's only difficult to know how to escape Karma.

Despite all the defenders here, not one has been able to say what the importance of gravity waves actually are. For all the stories about Gallileo and his discovery that the Earth orbits the Sun, we really have had no returns from that discovery either-but at least it's relatively cheap science. Hubble, voyager and Galileo satellites have produced interesting pictures and revealed some fascinating things about our neighbours, but none of them have produced anything we can actually use and the costs have been- excuse the pun- truly astronomical. I'm an amateur astronomer and keen science/engineering kind of person, but it seems like these experiments are getting further from reality. We are either peering down a huge microscope or a huge telescope at the incredibly tiny or the immensely large. We can't seem to solve basic problems like cellphone coverage, computer cyber attack, economic stability, Alzheimer's disease or road congestion. In Britain we are now running the risk of power cuts ! Seriously, in a first world country we will have a power grid like an African village. That's not to say we shouldn't attempt big science, but it's the zero element of usefulness and the high level of cost that concerns me. It's consuming scarce resource and producing nothing at all-from what I can understand and no one has yet managed to convince me otherwise. People moan about CEOs making millions of pounds, but they do EARN that money from their productive capacity, no one gives them millions to sit at a multi billion dollar desk thinking big thoughts.

Good stuff.

Yes, you can't avoid that. I had a very well paid career and lots of perks. My life was quite hedonistic. Walking through our local town on a weekday surrounded by welfare recipients wearing track suits and pushing multiple baby chairs was quite a shock to the system. I couldn't pop into the local motorcycle dealers and spend £15K on a new machine, or buy a new helmet. I had become a window shopper and tyre kicker. Holidays had been spent in exotic places became a wet week in a caravan park. I miss some of it, but not the pain suffered to get it.

Are you being entirely honest with yourself ? Sometimes having a job is just as important as making a living from a job. Also, the money you currently get might be insufficient to have the kind of life you really want. Shuttering up your goals to suit circumstances isn't a great way to go about living. You should want to be productive and not let yourself be discouraged by circumstances. I wasn't forced to quit my job, it was a personal choice and one which took some courage to carry out. Like any change I wasn't entirely comfortable and, like you, I still had some concerns over my personal standing in the community. I do study, I have written and published a book and am writing a lengthy novel. Once I had direction then that was my new career path. Not an easy one and I haven't made a bean out of it, but I'm sticking at it. I don't advise just slouching about. If you have the time available then use it to gain new skills, improve your mind, fitted your body. Do what you like to do, but do it with passion.